


The Longest Night

by starrypawz



Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Squire Alistair AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-26 06:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9872240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrypawz/pseuds/starrypawz
Summary: Post Ostagar Giselle Cousland and Squire Alistair Therin do not rest easy





	

_Marching…_

Not soldiers, it was an army but not soldiers.

It was something unearthly, unsettling seemed as though it was crawling over her skin and up into her ears to poke around her head.

It was _writhing_

Stone, great stone walls but they seemed _wrong_ somehow

The marching continued stronger, seemed to be in her chest.

_Roaring_

A roar that seemed to shake her bones

The marching didn’t stop, marching and writhing, marching and writhing…

A great dragon…

Giselle woke, sweating despite the cool air of the night and shivering. Her heart seemingly in her ears and feeling as if she’d run from Highever to Orlais without stopping. She took a couple of heavy, panting breaths but they didn’t seem to do anything but suddenly freeze her lungs.

Cormac whined, and she reached out, petting the Mabari to reassure him, “I’m ok boy, I’m ok” She whispered horridly.

She probably wasn’t ok, and she knew that.

“Elle?” She heard a voice in the near dark and turned,

“Ellie?” She heard the voice again, concern evident.

“Ali…” She managed as best she could.

“Bad dream?” He sighed, moving the short distance from his bedroll to hers. Cormac moved and placed a paw on Alistair’s knee which he lightly shook, “We didn’t mean to worry you,” He soothed the hound until he felt the weight of the dog’s head on his knee.

“Yes…” She said simply, feeling his hand brush hers in the dark. It reminded her this was all real, too real. You couldn’t touch things in dreams, they weren’t there, “There was a-”

“Army?”

“Yes… how did,”

“I… think we had the same dream?” He played with Cormac’s ears for a moment, hearing the hound huff as he tried to go back to sleep.

“It… didn’t feel like a dream” She leant against him, he felt solid safe, “I’ve… not slept much since,” She swallowed, feeling a lump in her throat. When she had slept it had seemed as though there was nothing, that was better than what she remembered in her sleep. She felt Alistair’s fingers running through her hair, pulling lightly seemingly focused on finding tangles in her ponytail. She hadn’t the energy to braid it.

Almost didn’t see the point.

“I think… Duncan told me something about this,” Alistair sighed, trying to hide his own unease, “Or maybe I read it in a book I’m not sure,” He paused for a moment winding a dark lock of hair around his finger a few times before letting it go, “Something about… hearing urm… Darkspawn and Blights and-”

_Maker I wish he was here._

“I…” Giselle spoke up, “When I had a bad dream that…” She stopped, the lump in her throat back, she wasn’t even sure if she would be able to cry this time. She could hear her father’s voice in her ear, telling her there was nothing to be frightened of-

He was wrong.

It was obvious there was a lot to be frightened of. Giselle dug her hands into the ground for a moment, feeling grass and earth under her palm, something real.

Giselle began to chuckle,

“Ellie?”

“I… remember that time you somehow managed to sneak into my room?” She squeezed his hand in the dark, “I think it’s when they decided I was too old to have you ‘In my private quarters’”

Alistair chuckled, “Yeah… somehow snuck right past everyone in the barracks, including good old Mical, he’d… had an extra flagon of ale as I remember,”

“And you said when you got to my room that if you were to protect me that-”

“That also meant I was meant to protect your dreams,”

“Yeah… Fergus had gone away and I kept having a bad dream he wasn’t coming home, and so you said you’d keep watch of my dreams,”

“And I did!”

“Yeah,” She snorted, “That apparently involved you stealing my bed covers and you elbowing me in your sleep!”

“Well that was before I ended up holding you…” As if on cue he moved his arm, letting her rest against her side, as she had done many times before.

Giselle sighed, feeling at least a small bit of tension disappearing, she placed a hand on his chest for a brief moment before Alistair adjusted himself so she could nestle between his legs. She placed her head on his chest, feeling his heartbeat against her ear and feeling the press of his arms against her back.

Despite her mood, she felt heat rise in her cheeks slightly. She’d spent plenty of time close to him, holding his hand, resting against him, even being carried by him once or twice. And yet that had never made her blush.  

Alistair pulled her a bit tighter, was she always this… he wasn’t sure if small was the right word but she seemed to fit just perfectly against him and he had to admit he liked it. A lot. More than he probably should…

He brushed a lock of dark hair away from her face, it seemed like she was sleeping again.

“Night, Ellie” He sighed.

It was going to be a long one. He turned to Cormac,

“We’ll take turns keeping an eye on her?”

Cormac huffed and he guessed that meant yes.

**Author's Note:**

> This AU is one where Alistair instead of being sent to the Chantry was instead sent to Highever as a squire. Myself and daraasum are both exploring this AU.


End file.
